and the service of God, and the promises.' But it was not an event constituting the national distinction of that people only. It was one affecting the whole human race in its deepest interests, both temporal and eternal. God himself descended from heaven and by a supernatural voice promulgated to man the Moral Law, the expression of his will, the reflection of his nature, the immutable standard of right, the inflexible rule of action for his accountable creatures, containing every essential | principle of duty, and embodying the grounds of all the future rewards and punishments to be enjoyed or suffered throughout the ages of eternity. These considerations impart to this event a magnitude and importance scarcely to be paralleled by any thing else which has come within the range of our expositions, so that the nature and scope of the Law itself, the various circumstances attending its promulgation, the phraseology in which it is couched, and the principles of its interpretation demand the most careful investigation. Such an inquiry will be best conducted under the several distinct heads that follow.

1. Various Divisions and Titles of the Law.

As the people of Israel may be viewed under a threefold aspect, so we have a foundation laid in this fact for a threefold acceptation of the word Law. They may be viewed, (1.) As rational and responsible creatures, depending upon God, and subject to his will as the supreme Ruler and Judge of the universe. In this capacity the law of the ten commandments, or the moral law, was given to them, which is substantially one and the same with the law of nature, and binding all men as such. (2.) As the church of the Old Testament, expecting the Messiah, and furnished with a system of worship embracing a great variety of rites and ceremonies, which

pointed more or less distinctly to him. Viewed in this ecclesiastical character, God bestowed upon them the ceremonial law, which was a body of rules and precepts regulating their religious worship. (3.) As a peculiar people, having a civil polity and constitution especially appointed for them, and distinguishing them from all other nations, their government being in fact a theocracy, in which God himself was their supreme magistrate. Viewed in this light a code of civil or political laws was prescribed them. The term 'the law' is sometimes applied to one of these sys tems, and sometimes to another, and again to the whole taken collectively; so that we must often be governed in great measure by the context in deter. mining the precise sense in which the term is used. It is however most legitimately and emphatically employed in reference to the first of these, or the moral law, which was distinguished from the others by being audibly delivered by God himself and afterwards written by him upon two tables of stone. Of this Law one of the prevailing scriptural designations is 'the ten words,' or 'ten commandments,' a phraseology which is fully considered in the notes on the first verse of this chapter. The term 'Decalogue' is wholly equivalent, being derived from the Gr. dexadoyos, from dɛka, ten, and λoyos, word. The origin of this appellation is easily to be traced to such passages as the following, Ex. 34. 28, 'And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments (Gr. Tʊvs deka doyovs).' Deut. 13. 4, 'And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, were ten commandments (Heb.

Yasereth haddebarim, the ten words, Gr. ra dexa pпμara); and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.' In other connexions we find the several terms Law, Covenant, Testimony, Statutes, Precepts, Commandments, &c. ap. plied as a designation of the moral code

are either so obvious as not to require particular exposition, or are sufficiently unfolded in the course of the ensuing notes; so that a precise explication of them may at present be waved.

sate the mutilation by leaving the nominal integrity of the code unimpaired. That such a disjunction of the parts of the tenth commandment is wholly unauthorized and violent, will be evident upon a comparison of the text as it

Law.

In all ages of the church it has been admitted that the Moral Law was comprised in ten distinct commandments. Of these again a very ancient and generally recognized division is into two tables; the first embracing the first four, the second the last six, of the precepts; the first containing, in a general way, the duties we owe to God, the second, those which we owe to our fellow-men. This division, which is very natural, is warranted by the express words of the Savior, Mat. 22. 37-40, who divides the Law into two great commandments, 'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, &c. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.'

In the numerical arrangement and distinction of the several precepts of the decalogue, it is well known that the Romanists differ essentially from Protestants. Following the authority of Augustin, the Roman Church makes but one commandment of the two first, while in order to keep good the number ten, they divide the tenth into two, making the first sentence of that commandment the ninth. The consequence has been that in many professed recitals of the ten commandments in books of devotion, what we term the second, forbidding idolatry, is entirely omitted. The motive for thus abstracting the second commandment from the Decalogue is very easily imagined on the part of a church which gives so much countenance to image-worship; and it is equally obvious that the partition of the tenth into

Deut. 5. 21. In the present passage the coveting of a 'house' occurs before the coveting of a wife;' whereas in the other passage the order is reversed and 'house' occurs after wife.' If then the Papal division were well founded, the ninth commandment according to the one reading would be, 'Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house,' and according to the other, 'Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife.' Such a diversity it appears from Hallett's Notes on Scripture Texts (vol. 3. p. 55.) actually exists in some of the Catechisms and Manuals of the Roman church. suppose, with Protestants, that 'house' and wife' belong to the same precept, and the change in collocation is a matter of no moment.

But

A difference occurs also between the Heb. and the Gr. copies in regard to the collocation of the sixth and seventh commandments. The Gr. places our seventh before the sixth, and this order is followed by such of the early Christian Fathers as used the translation of the Seventy, as also by Philo among the Jews. The Gr., however, preserves the usual order of the Heb. text in Deut. 5. 17, 18. In the New Testament a similar diversity obtains. In Mark, 19. 19, and Luke, 18. 20, the prohibition of 'adultery' comes before that of 'killing ;' while in Mat. 19. 18, the Heb. arrangement is observed. The inference is fair from this that provided the integrity of the Decalogue be preserved, and there be no addition to nor subtraction from the true number, the precise order of enumeration is not a matter of any great moment.

3. Nature and Scope of the Law. It is too obvious to require proof that man was formed to be a creature of law. At his very creation, the law of God was written on his heart. Those divine fingers which so curiously wrought the physical fabric of his body, interwove also the precepts of this law with the interior frame-work of his soul. Nor are we to suppose that man had been utterly destitute of all external notices of this law from the creation to the present time. Though not previously so expressly and formally revealed, yet as sin was in the world from Adam to Moses, so we cannot doubt that that law, by the knowledge of which is the knowledge of sin, was also in the world. But nothing is more certain than that in process of time all flesh had corrupted its way, and the traces of the moral code were nearly obliterated among men. The great fundamental truths of religion were lost and buried in the abounding idolatry and immorality that every where prevailed. In these circumstances, when it pleased God to separate to himself a peculiar people, who should know his will, and be the depositaries of his truth, he saw fit to republish this law, and so to record it as to give it a permanent establishment in the world; and in order to convey a more suitable impression of its spirit and design, it was to be delivered in circumstances of the greatest imaginable pomp and terror. The intrinsic propriety of this will be seen at once on considering the character of the Law. As contrasted with the Gospel it was a dispensation of wrath, a ministration of condemnation and death. 'Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them,' is its inexorable language. It was a 'fiery law,' denouncing judgment without mercy for every offence, and not knowing either abatement, or intermission, or compromise of its stern demands. The circumstances of its de

livery, therefore, were intended to be in keeping with its character. Being a transcript of the divine perfections, it was to be so promulgated as to impress those who heard it, and those who should hear of it, with a just sense of the greatness, majesty, glory, and terribleness of that Being from whom it emanated. It was designed to work a deep conviction of the fearfulness of Jehovah's displeasure, and to inspire alarm by awaking a sense of sin. Accordingly, as it was attended with the terrors of Sinai in its proclamation, so it comes into the conscience with the dread of God's wrath. As the mountain shook, as the people trembled, as Moses himself said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake,' so the soul when it becomes convinced of sin, is filled with dismay. Fearfulness and trembling come upon it; it shakes with violent apprehensions of woe, and looks for instant destruc tion. Such is the necessary consequence. Whenever a man obtains a correct view of the Law, and feels that he has broken it; when he sees that the Law is spiritual, and that he is carnal, sold under sin; when he perceives that he is condemned, and every moment liable to the curse; he cannot but experience the same kind of inward emotions and perturbations as the Israelites experienced when they saw the fires of Sinai, heard its thunders, and felt its shaking. Thus one main object of the giving of the Law was attained-the begetting a sense of native sinfulness, of distance from God, of exposedness to wrath. But this would lead directly to another of equal importance—the necessity of a Mediator. And this effect was very decidedly wrought on the present occasion. They were conscious that they could not approach to God without some kind of intervention. Accordingly, they who but just before had been with difficulty restrained from breaking through the bounds that had been assigned them, were now so alarm.

ed that they drew back from their station, and entreated that God would no longer deliver his commands to them in that way, lest they should die. They desired that Moses might act as a mediator between God and them, and that all future intimations of the divine will should be given through that medium. They were not perhaps aware of the full meaning of their own request, nor of how much a greater mediator than Moses they stood in need. But God approved of their request, and not only complied with it, but promised another Mediator at a future period, who should resemble Moses, and whom the people were required, under the highest penalty, to obey. For it was on this occasion that the promise contained Deut. 18. 15-19, was given, 'The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth: and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.' The agency of Moses, therefore, throughout the whole transaction, passing to and fro between God and the people, now ascending the mount and entering the cloud, and now again coming forth, returning to the camp, and delivering his messages, was expressly designed as a lively type of the mediatorship of Christ in effecting our acceptance and salvation. And thus it serves, as the apostle says, 'as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.' VOL. I 22

With this view of the essential nature and genius of the Law before us, we cannot easily fall into the error against which the apostle Paul has so anxiously warned us, of supposing that it was given in order to man's being saved by his living up to its demands. It was not given to give life. 'By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified.' It was rather designed as a divine revelation of man's religious and moral duties, as a perfect standard and rule of obedience, and one too of perpetual and universal obligation. For as every precept of it flows directly from the unchangeable perfections of God, it must for ever make the same uncompromising demand upon the obedience of its subjects. The ceremonial statutes might serve a temporary end and be abolished. But of the Moral Law our Savior says, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.' It must necessarily enter into the Christian dispensation, and pervade it through every period of its existence. It will even pass into heaven itself and there be the delight and govern the service of every glorified spirit and ministering angel. This will be more evident if we consider that it is the universal law of love. God is love, and his Law inculcates love. A compend of the whole Law is embraced in the precept, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' Love therefore must be of universal and eternal obligation, immutable as the nature of God himself. God cannot divest himself of love, nor even abrogate the Law which requires it.

From all this we perceive the great ends which were to be answered by the promulgation of the Law of the ten commandments, and for the same reasons we can see why it was that such a

scene was chosen for the purpose. The genius of the Law was severe, rigid, dark, fearful, terrific. In accordance with this the people of Israel were led into a dreary, desolate wilderness, a region of barren rocks and thirsty sands, where all nature appeared in its most wild, and rugged, and desert aspect. There, amidst bleak mountainous masses of granite, separated by narrow ravines, in which only here and there little patches of herbage, and scattered trees are found, the Law of Sinai was proclaimed, as if it were especially intended to teach them that that dispensation, compared with the gospel, was like the most desert and forbidding locality on the earth's surface contrasted with the most blooming and luxuriant paradise which the hands of nature and art ever conspired to beautify. This view of the event before us will no doubt become more and more striking, in proportion as the geological and topographical features of that region are more fully disclosed, as they are in a fair way to be, in consequence of the growing influx of travel into that memorable and interesting quarter of the globe.

4. Principles of Interpretation. 'Thy commandment,' says David, 'is exceeding broad;' in which we read a clear intimation of the extent and spirituality of the divine requirements, as reaching beyond the outward actions, and taking cognizance of the inmost thoughts and intentions of the heart. With so important a portion of revelation, therefore, before us, it is evidently a matter of great moment to fix upon correct principles of interpretation, and in coming at these, nothing is more obvious than that the mode of interpretation adopted by Christ and his apostles is to be a directory for us in putting our constructions upon the precepts of the Decalogue. Referring then to our Lord's sermon on the mount, it is clear

beyond all question that the Law, properly understood, lays its demands and its prohibitions upon the inward actings of the spirit, and not merely upon the outward conduct. If we are taught by this supreme authority to regard cherished lust as adultery, and harbored hate as murder, how can we avoid the inference that all the commandments are equally extensive in their import, and address themselves directly to the heart as the fountain of action and the criterion of character? To the same conclusion are we irresistibly brought by the language of Paul in his reasonings upon the Law in the Epistle to the Romans. It was only when he came to understand fully the spiritual nature of the Law and the sternness and universality of its requirements, that he became convinced of sin, and, as it were, slain by its killing power. The same view of the character of this deeply searching moral code is undoubtedly maintained throughout the whole tenor of the Scriptures, so that we can. not well hesitate to admit the justness of the canon laid down in the Assembly's Catechism, for interpreting the demands of the Law, that it binds every one to full conformity in the whole man, unto the righteousness thereof, and to entire obedience for ever; so as to require the utmost perfection in every duty, and to forbid the least degree of every sin.' Accordingly, in putting a due sense upon the several precepts, we must admit that 'when a particular duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden, with all the causes, occasions, and temptations which might lead to it; and when a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded, together with all the requisite means to its performance.'

It may also be remarked in regard to the distinction of the precepts into affirmative and negative, that there is ground for it in the consideration that what God forbids is at no time to be